John Lewis staff receive 17 per cent salary bonuses

John Lewis’s 84,700 staff have received bonuses equivalent to 17 per cent of their salaries, the company said yesterday, as it revealed a surge in profits and sales.

The £211m bonus pot, announced at John Lewis and Waitrose stores across the UK to staff cheers, is worth nearly nine weeks’ pay, or around £4,000 for average full-time employees.

This is up from 14 per cent last year, when bonuses were cut for the first time since 2009.

The news came as the John Lewis Partnership said profit before the bonus and tax surged 15.8 per cent to £409.6m in the year to 26 January. Total sales rose 9.1 per cent to £8.47bn, with John Lewis like-for-like sales up 10.5 per cent and Waitrose like-for-like sales climbing 3.4 per cent.